The three minor children of Indira Gandhi was unilaterally converted to Islam on 2nd April 2009 by the father of the children then known as Patmanathan who had converted into Islam on 11th March 2009.
The conversion was done unilaterally without the consent of the mother of the young children Indira Gandhi and she accordingly filed an application for judicial review in Ipoh High Court.
On 28th July2010, the Ipoh Civil High Court granted leave to quash the issuance of Certificate of Conversion to Islam by JABATAN AGAMA ISLAM PERAK .
On 25th July 2013 Ipoh High Court Justice Lee Swee Seng made an order to quash 3 certificates of Conversion to the religion of Islam issued by Jabatan Agama Islam Perak and that the certificates are null and void and of no legal effect.
On 30th December by a majority decision led by Justice Baliah the appealed was allowed with Justice Hamid Sultan dissenting.
We then filed for leave to the Federal Court and have posed 8 questions for due considerations.
Today the matter came by before a single Judge namely Justice Zahara for case management.
Mr. Aston and I appeared for the Appellants. Hatim Musa for the Husband – Pathmanathan( Muhamad Riduan Abdullah) Mr. Shamsul Bolhassan for the Education Ministry and the AG Chambers and Dato Rohana Abdul Malek as Perak State Legal Adviser.
We informed the court we would like to request that Chief Justice Ariffin Zakaria, Court of Appeal President Raus and other Judges in Federal Court to recuse themselves from presiding and Hearing the leave Application which has been fixed for Hearing on 19th May 2016.
We have also asked for a panel of Judges who are multiracial, multi religious as per the population of the country and finally it should be multi-gender based.
Justice Zahara also said “ We also have to take into consideration the current number of Judges in the Federal Court”
Justice Zahara opined that she herself may be disqualified as she had presided in the case of Indira Gandhi vs IGP which decision of the Federal Court is now pending.
She said she will discuss this issue with the CJ and a decision will be made. In the meantime we will write to the Registrar of the Federal Court listing out the reasons why the present Judges should not hear this appeal.